Event
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Event Summary
On Tuesday, September 22, the Bayh-Dole Coalition hosted a Capitol Hill event to unveil our landmark report measuring the economic impact of America’s technology transfer system under the Bayh-Dole Act.
The briefing opened with remarks from Bayh-Dole Coalition Board Chair Brian O’Shaughnessy, followed by remarks from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires and Small Business Administration Associate Administrator Josh Carter.
Afterward, Bayh-Dole Coalition Executive Director Joseph P. Allen moderated a panel featuring President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Karen Kerrigan, Managing Director of MassVentures, Vinit Nijhawan, and CEO of AUTM, Steve Susalka. The panelists discussed the report’s findings and the role that federally supported research, strong intellectual property protections, and technology transfer play in turning promising discoveries into new companies, products, and economic growth.
Drawing on nearly three decades of AUTM licensing survey data, analyzed by Vital Transformation, the new report examines the nationwide economic impact of inventions arising from federally funded research and, for the first time, provides state-by-state and regional insights.
Key findings include:
- Between 1996 and 2025, technology transfer involving university and nonprofit inventions that benefited from federal funding contributed as much as:
- $3.3 trillion to U.S. gross economic output
- $1.7 trillion to U.S. GDP
- 7.6 million job-years of U.S. employment
- From 2001-2025, technology transfer at academic institutions led to the launch of more than 19,000 startups and the introduction of more than 17,000 new products.
- Since 1980, the annual number of patents on inventions benefiting from government funding has increased more than 70-fold.
- Bayh-Dole-enabled technology transfer generates economic activity in every state and region of the United States.
This report leverages the 2022 analysis “Economic Contributions of University/Nonprofit Inventions in the United States: 1996-2020,” prepared for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and AUTM by Lori Pressman, Mark Planting, Carol Moylan and Jennifer Bond, and incorporates five additional years of data through 2025.
Panelists
Joseph P. Allen (Moderator)
Joe is the executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. As a professional staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee to Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), he played a key role in the successful passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and its subsequent amendments. He later served as the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the Department of Commerce, which oversaw the implementation of Bayh-Dole and chaired the Interagency Committee on Technology Transfer.
Karen Kerrigan
Karen is president & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. In this role, she regularly testifies before Congress on the key issues impacting entrepreneurs and the economy, engages with the President’s cabinet and key advisors, and has been appointed to numerous federal advisory boards. She also chairs the Small Business Roundtable and is a founding member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum. Karen earned a B.A. from SUNY Cortland and currently serves on the Cortland College Foundation Board.
Vinit Nijhawan
Vinit is the Managing Director of MassVentures, the Commonwealth’s strategic venture capital organization. He previously headed Boston University’s Office of Technology development, where he launched multiple venture-backed spinouts and introduced his signature approach to technology transfer, “Maximize Collisions, Minimize Friction.” He is also the only non-UK member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Committee, which advises the UK government on engineering and technology innovation. Over the course of nearly four decades, Vinit has served as a founder, CEO, investor, and strategic leader — investing in both the global innovation economy and the success of emerging entrepreneurs.
Stephen Susalka
Steve is the Chief Executive Officer of AUTM, a 3,000+ member non-profit association focused on supporting and enhancing technology transfer globally, and oversees a cooperative partnership with the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer to support technology transfer for more than 300 federal labs across the United States. He has frequently presented on Capitol Hill and internationally on topics ranging from startup formation to the evolution of the profession and has worked with senior leaders worldwide on strategies to enhance the commercialization of early-stage inventions. Steve earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Virginia and is a registered U.S. Patent Agent.
